Messi, 32, can reportedly leave Barcelona at the end of any season for a club outside of Europe despite being contracted at the LaLiga champions until 2021.

Linked with a shock switch to David Beckham's MLS outfit Inter Miami, the club are continuing to make moves for the Argentina superstar.

TOP STORY – INTER MIAMI REPRESENTATIVE MEETS MESSI'S DAD

Beckham sent Inter Miami sporting director Paul McDonough to London for talks with Messi's dad Jorge, according to The Sun.

Inter Miami are set to enter MLS in 2020 and are looking for a big-name signing, with Messi undoubtedly the biggest of the names linked.

It comes just days after Messi said in an interview with Sport that he wanted to remain at Camp Nou for "as long as possible".

ROUND-UP

- Real Madrid could chase Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba again in January. Sport Bild reports Real Madrid are planning to use Toni Kroos in an exchange deal to land the France international, who was heavily linked with a switch during the close season.

- Sadio Mane re-signed with Liverpool until 2023 less than 12 months ago, but the European champions are already looking for the attacker to recommit. Liverpool have opened talks with Mane for an extension, according to Soccer Link.

- Seemingly unwanted at Juventus, Mario Mandzukic's future remains a talking point. Qatari club Al-Gharafa have offered €6million net per year to the striker and can meet Juve's demands, according to CalcioMercato, which reports Los Angeles FC are also interested in the Croatian despite the MLS transfer window not reopening until February.

- Inter are already looking to lock down a couple of stars. CalcioMercato reports the Serie A giants want to extend the contracts of goalkeeper Samir Handanovic – until 2022 – and forward Lautaro Martinez until 2024. The report says Inter would also double Martinez's salary from €1.5m to €3m per season amid interest from Barcelona.

- Sam Allardyce is ready for a return to management. The Sun reports the former England boss, who left Everton in May last year, is eyeing a return to Sunderland if the reported takeover by an American consortium is completed.

Daniel Farke will celebrate Norwich City's surprise victory over Premier League champions Manchester City with "a coffee and a piece of cake" after training on Sunday.

Norwich produced a brilliant display to see off City 3-2 at Carrow Road on Saturday and claim their second win of a vibrant start to the 2019-20 season that has included some good moments in defeats to Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham.

Kenny McLean and Todd Cantwell put the Canaries two goals ahead, before Sergio Aguero reduced the arrears on the stroke of half-time.

Asked how he would celebrate the famous victory, Farke said: "To be honest, it was a really complicated week and I'm happy when I'm back on my sofa this evening because I'm too old and too exhausted to celebrate.

"We have training Sunday morning and we have to analyse the game so for that I have to watch the game back.

"So it will be a pretty late night for me to be prepared, but hopefully on Sunday afternoon on the sofa I can have a coffee and a piece of cake, I will celebrate with this.

"All our supporters are definitely allowed to celebrate and enjoy this day because if you don't value these moments you lose your motivation, but we will definitely stay calm."

Norwich were without seven players due to injury and Farke felt that provided additional sweetness to an unexpected success, though he always sets his team out to "reach something excellent".

"It is definitely a proud night, without any doubt," he said. "To win against the best team in the world, with world-class players, a world-class coach, a top club, as Norwich City, as a newly promoted side who has no chance to spend an unbelievable amount of money in the summer in a situation with an unbelievable amount of injured players, it's really special.

"I always believe in my players. We know we were not the favourites and everything has to come together. But we play football to reach something excellent, not just realistic things.

"We have had several good games but the outcome in terms of points was not perfect because we played some really decent sides and so you struggle with self-confidence.

"It was important to give them back the belief and some self-confidence - but it seems like we found the right words and decisions.

"Against such quality you have to play slightly different because you can't control possession against Manchester City. We had to try and allow Manchester City possession in certain areas and with certain players.

"It was complicated to prepare this game, but my lads fulfilled everything we tried to work on in the last few days in a perfect way."

Pep Guardiola congratulated Norwich City after they inflicted one of the biggest shock results in Premier League history on champions Manchester City.

Norwich were without 11 players due to injury and head coach Daniel Farke had to include two goalkeepers as substitutes in order to fill his bench, but they pulled off a stunning 3-2 home win.

The Canaries led 2-0 thanks to goals from Kenny McLean and Todd Cantwell and held their nerve despite Sergio Aguero halving the deficit before half-time.

Nicolas Otamendi's error led to Teemu Pukki making it 3-1 and although Rodri's late strike set up a nervous finale, the promoted outfit were able to hold on for a famous victory.

City's first loss in the Premier League since January leaves them five points behind Liverpool, who have won all five of their games in the 2019-20 campaign, as Guardiola's men seek a third consecutive title.

"Sometimes games like this happen – we had our chances to score but didn't, so congratulations to Norwich," Guardiola said. "It is football – we had many opportunities today, they had three or four and scored three goals.

"The first one was a set-piece we didn't defend, the second we were caught on the counter-attack and the third came from a mistake, but we know what we are as a team, we know what we have done and we know what we are going to do.

"I love my players and it's a pleasure to be with them. They didn't create so many chances, but they got three goals – we played Bournemouth and they had more chances than Norwich did today, but we won that game – football can sometimes do this."

Guardiola sprang a surprise by starting with Kevin De Bruyne on the bench and while he introduced the Belgium star in the second half, along with Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez, City could not find an equaliser.

"Even at 2-0, we knew we were still in it because we can create a lot of chances in a short space of time," Guardiola added.

"But the third goal hurt us because we had started [the second half] well and we were there, but in the end it didn't happen. In football you can't always avoid mistakes.

"They are a really good team with good players who have quality, we saw that in the Championship last year, they were clinical today.

"We did not have urgency in the final third that we normally have. Even at 3-2 we had chances to make it 3-3 – this team never gives up and that's why we have done what we have done."

Pep Guardiola insists he does not need to bring in defensive reinforcements in the January transfer window despite Manchester City's surprise 3-2 loss at Norwich City.

Aymeric Laporte is expected to be out until the new year after undergoing surgery on a knee injury, with the Premier League champions losing at Carrow Road in his absence on Saturday.

Goals from Kenny McLean, Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki earned the injury-hit Canaries a famous win, while Sergio Aguero and Rodri were on target for City.

Before the game Guardiola indicated City would not enter the market to replace Laporte despite being left with only two senior centre-backs, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi, after the departure of club captain Vincent Kompany.

Stones and Otamendi were both at fault in a dreadful defensive performance as City lost in the league for the first time since January, with McLean's headed opener coming from a corner.

Asked if City have a problem defending near-post corners in particular, Guardiola said: "In four seasons, yes. Our quality of play is different but we defended incredibly well in the past."

Guardiola, who surprisingly left talisman Kevin De Bruyne on the bench, feels Stones and Otamendi can still form a reliable partnership in the wake of their error-strewn display, while Kyle Walker was involved in conceding a cheap second goal to Cantwell.

"It's football," he added. "We talk and improve from this, Kyle knows it and this happens sometimes, try to improve for the next time.

"They [Stones and Otamendi] play how many times together? A lot, they are the centre-backs we have. Maybe Fernandinho or Rodri can play there. I'm not worried, it's football. How many games John and Nico played in more than three games together? A lot.

"Normally I count their chances and I think they didn't create too much, three goals, I don't know from how many shots on target but I don't have that feeling they had many, many chances, but sometimes this happens."

An injury crisis left Norwich without 11 players and Daniel Farke could not even fill his bench of seven substitutes without including two goalkeepers.

"Of course it is special day for us and for the club," he told BBC Sport. "Against one of the best teams in the world and when we have so many injuries.

"We had to be special in our plan for City because they are the best team in the world, but we had setbacks too with our injuries.

Manchester City fans experienced that rare feeling of Premier League defeat under Pep Guardiola as Norwich City overcame the odds in sensational style at Carrow Road on Saturday.

Many were suggesting the heavily depleted Canaries' best hope was to avoid a cricket scoreline against the defending champions.

But a clinical performance, coupled with some questionable Man City defending, saw Daniel Farke's side secure a memorable 3-2 victory, with Kenny McLean, Todd Cantwell and the in-form Teemu Pukki on the scoresheet for the hosts.

The loss marked an end to a 25-match unbeaten streak against promoted sides for Man City, while Norwich had lost 11 of their previous 12 encounters against the team defending the Premier League title – their last such victory coming against the same opponents in May 2013.

It was an unlucky 13th Premier League defeat for Man City since Guardiola took over ahead of the 2016-17 campaign and their first since January.

We look at their most surprising top-flight reverses under the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach.

Leicester City 4-2 Man City (10/12/2016)

It is easy to forget Guardiola's maiden campaign at the Etihad Stadium was not all sunshine and roses. A week on from a 3-1 home reverse to Chelsea, City were turned over by a Jamie Vardy inspired Leicester. The Foxes were three to the good inside 20 minutes as Vardy scored twice either side of an Andy King effort, with the ex-England striker completing his hat-trick in the 78th minute. Late goals from Aleksandar Kolarov and Nolito did little to ease the disappointment.

Everton 4-0 Man City (15/01/2017)

Just a month later, Guardiola was left accepting his side's chances of defending the title were over after a shambolic performance at a rampant Everton. Romelu Lukaku and Belgium team-mate Kevin Mirallas assisted each other to put the Toffees 2-0 up by the 47th minute and late goals from Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman compounded the visitors' Merseyside misery.

Man City 2-3 Crystal Palace (22/12/18)

A 2-0 loss at Chelsea a couple of weeks previous had put paid to City's chances on going unbeaten in the Premier League, but this was an altogether more shocking defeat. Ilkay Gundogan's 27th-minute opener suggested a routine win was on the cards but two goals in as many minutes from Jeffrey Schlupp and Andros Townsend – the latter an unbelievable 30-yard volley – put Palace ahead at the break. Luka Milivojevic's penalty cemented the lead and not even Kevin De Bruyne's late strike could salvage a point for City. Eagles boss Roy Hodgson would describe the result as "one of those bonanza days".

Leicester City 2-1 Man City (26/12/18)

Four days later, an unhappy festive season was completed with another defeat thanks to familiar Foxes foes. Marc Albrighton cancelled out Bernardo Silva's 14th-minute strike and a late stunner from Ricardo Pereira gave Leicester a late Christmas present. Fabian Delph received the one card he would not want to get in December when he saw red for a late tackle on Pereira in the closing stages.

Newcastle United 2-1 Man City (29/01/2019)

Sergio Aguero, as he always seems to, scored against the Magpies with a first-minute goal and he saw a second soon chalked off for offside. However, a couple of defensive errors enabled Salomon Rondon and Matt Ritchie to score – the second netting from the spot – and City slipped to defeat at St James' Park.

Norwich City 3-2 Man City (14/09/2019)

Norwich and boss Daniel Farke drew plenty of smiles for the light-hearted way they dealt with a grim-looking injury list prior to a visit from the champions. Pre-match odds of 22-1 underlined the task the home side were facing, but McLean took advantage of City's slack defending at a corner to head Norwich into an 18th-minute lead. More sloppy work at the back led to Pukki brilliantly teeing up Cantwell to double the lead, before Aguero nodded home before the break to bring the champions back into the game. Comical work from Nicolas Otamendi led to Emiliano Buendia teeing up Pukki for Norwich's third. Rodri's drilled strike late on set up a nervy finish, but Norwich held on for the win.

Manchester City lost in the Premier League for the first time since January as a 3-2 defeat at injury-hit Norwich City left them five points behind leaders Liverpool in the title race.

The Reds extended their perfect run to five wins from five with a 3-1 comeback victory at home to Newcastle United in Saturday's early kick-off.

And that victory was given even more importance when the Canaries rocked the champions at Carrow Road despite being without 11 players who are in the treatment room.

There were also big wins for Tottenham and Chelsea, Manchester United handed Leicester City their first defeat of the season, Southampton won at 10-man Sheffield United and Burnley struck late to claim a 1-1 draw at Brighton and Hove Albion.

LAPORTE LOSS HURTS CHAMPIONS

Aymeric Laporte has been ruled out for six months after surgery on his right knee and City's diabolical defensive performance indicated the centre-back will be horribly missed.

Kyle Walker, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi were all at fault at various times as goals from Kenny McLean, Todd Cantwell and August's Premier League player of the month Teemu Pukki earned Norwich a deserved victory against massive odds.

Pep Guardiola began with Kevin De Bruyne on the bench ahead of the Champions League starting next week and the decision backfired as City looked lost without their midfield talisman, although Sergio Aguero and Rodri struck to spark hopes of a comeback.

It is early days in the title race, but Liverpool are already looking very strong while City's weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed by Norwich in their second home win of the season.

FIVE IN A ROW FOR REDS

Newcastle United took a shock early lead at Anfield thanks to a thunderbolt from left-back Jetro Willems, but that proved as good as it got for Steve Bruce's men as they went down 3-1 to leaders Liverpool.

Sadio Mane was inspirational as the Senegal star scored twice to turn the game on its head, his second thanks to poor goalkeeping from Martin Dubravka, before Mohamed Salah wrapped things up.

With a perfect record from their five fixtures in 2019-20, Liverpool are up to 14 straight wins in the Premier League – and they are the first team in the competition's history to do so scoring more than once in each game.

This result moved them five points clear at the top and the European champions could hardly be in better shape ahead of beginning their Champions League defence away to Napoli on Tuesday.

SPURS AND CHELSEA RUN RIOT

At half-time, Spurs were 4-0 up at home to Crystal Palace while Chelsea were 3-0 up away to winless Wolves, Fiyako Tomori netting a stunner with Abraham scoring at least twice for the third Premier League game in a row.

He went one better after the break to set a record for the Blues, though a touch of the shine was taken off his performance when he put through an own goal to hand Wolves a consolation, which they added to through Patrick Cutrone.

Abraham, now the top scorer this season with seven strikes, is the first player in the history of the Premier League to score a hat-trick as well as an own goal in the same game, with fellow England talent Mason Mount also on target late on.

Son Heung-min proved unstoppable for the Eagles, with the South Korea star involved in Spurs' first three goals before Harry Kane set up Erik Lamela to make it four.

It was a much-needed three points for Spurs, who were on a three-game winless run, with a trip to Olympiacos in the Champions League to come next for Mauricio Pochettino's side.

RASHFORD PENALTY SEES UNITED BOUNCE BACK

Like Spurs, United had failed to win any of their three league games going into the international break, but they showed resilience to edge a slim victory at home to Leicester despite being without Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw and Jesse Lingard.

Rashford won an early penalty when he was clumsily brought down by Caglar Soyuncu and, unlike in their 2-1 loss at home to Palace, this time he converted from 12 yards to condemn the Foxes to their first defeat of the season.

Moussa Djenepo's excellent goal earned Southampton a 1-0 win at Bramall Lane, where the Blades were cut down to 10 men when substitute striker Billy Sharp was dismissed for a challenge on Stuart Armstrong.

Brighton looked to be heading for their first home league win since March 2 thanks to Neal Maupay's controlled volley but Burnley substitute Jeff Hendrick marked his 100th Premier League appearance with a stunning late equaliser.

In the first minute of added time, the Republic of Ireland midfielder collected a lay-off from Matej Vydra to rifle a first-time drive into the bottom-right corner from 25 yards.

Norwich City shocked Premier League champions Manchester City 3-2 at Carrow Road despite the Canaries coping with a massive injury crisis.

The visitors' first league loss since January was self-inflicted as defenders made regular errors, but Norwich, whose goals came from Kenny McLean, Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki, fully deserved their second home win since sealing promotion.

Rodri drilled home with two minutes to go to give City hope of a point but defeat on Saturday leaves them five points behind Liverpool in the table, with the Reds holding a 100 per cent record after five Premier League games.

Norwich were without 11 players due to injury and had to name two goalkeepers on the bench, but Daniel Farke's men took a shock lead in the 18th minute.

City's weakness from near-post corners is well known and when Emiliano Buendia floated Norwich's first set-piece into that area, McLean ran into space to power home a superb header.

It got worse for the champions 10 minutes later. Rodri lost a 50-50 on halfway and City were immediately exposed with Pukki able to easily advance and square for Cantwell to score.

Raheem Sterling's header hit the post as City aimed to respond and Sergio Aguero halved the deficit before the break by nodding home a perfectly placed left-wing Bernardo Silva centre.

Nicolas Otamendi's moment of madness presented Norwich with a gift of a third after the restart, Buendia robbing the defender and feeding Pukki for an easy finish - his eighth goal of the season for club and country.

Pep Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez from the bench but the cavalry could not rescue the champions, although Rodri's 20-yard drive flew past Tim Krul to leave Norwich to see out a nervy finale.

What does it mean? City must enter transfer market after Laporte news

The news Aymeric Laporte could miss six months was a huge blow to a squad still missing the steady leadership of Vincent Kompany, who was not replaced when his contract expired.

John Stones has been out of sorts for some time and Otamendi also feels like a player who always has a mistake in him, with Guardiola possessing no specialist cover for either centre-back.

Guardiola told reporters before this game that City would not buy a defender in January but he has to reconsider after this shambolic defensive performance, although take nothing away from Norwich. They were huge outsiders and produced one of the league's biggest ever shocks.

Prolific Pukki cannot stop scoring

Since May 5, Finland forward Pukki has played 10 games for either Norwich or his country, failing to find the net in only one of those appearances. At 29 his career has taken the long way round to reach the Premier League but Pukki looks at home.

Goals are often the biggest problem for promoted sides but in Pukki, the Premier League's player of the month for August, they have a striker they can rely on, while he showed an unselfish streak to set up Cantwell for the Canaries' second.

Otamendi loses the plot

One mistake in a game can be forgiven but Otamendi made two awful errors in incredibly quick succession. Having played a poor pass to the similarly sloppy Stones that Norwich failed to capitalise on, he switched off immediately to allow Norwich to net the goal that effectively killed the game.

Although the Argentina defender started 14 league games last term, Stones and Otamendi does not look like a partnership that will help City to win the Premier League title again.

What's next?

City will want a better defensive display when they open their Champions League campaign away to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. They then take on Watford at home next weekend, when Norwich travel to Burnley.

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is hopeful Antonio Rudiger will not miss any time after he had to leave the thrilling 5-2 win over Wolves with a groin injury.

Prior to the match, Lampard had called on Rudiger, 26, to become a leader for his young squad but his return to action came to a premature end at half-time on Saturday.

The former Roma defender was making his first appearance since suffering a serious knee injury in April, but had to be replaced by Kurt Zouma at Molineux.

But Lampard is optimistic over Rudiger's status ahead of Chelsea facing Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday.

"He's had a groin issue which he bothered as he came off the pitch near me - he slipped onto the metal which made him have to slide and adjust himself so he bothered his groin," Lampard explained in his post-match news conference.

"He ran off the pitch and unfortunately he bothered it then. It's a quick turnaround but hopefully [he can play Valencia]. Hopefully not too bad.

"It's more of a precaution because he did feel some pain, so we'll assess it over the next couple of days."

Nuno, meanwhile, rued defensive mistakes after Tammy Abraham's hat-trick, along with goals from Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount, left Wolves second-bottom in the Premier League table.

Abraham also had an own goal, with Patrick Cutrone's first Wolves goal one of the only positives to emerge.

"Bad performance, bad game," said Nuno. "We started well - good pressing, good organisation - but we suffered a goal and didn't react well.

"We made a second mistake and were two goals down. It was tough, we didn't perform. Too many goals, too many mistakes. What I think is [we have to] realise what happened and not repeat it. We have to work hard and go again on Thursday [against Braga].

"Of course, we have to change, we have to improve. We have to become better and we cannot make mistakes. The only solution: work.

"Sometimes it was credit to Chelsea, good goals, but some of those from the eight [conceded in last two games] were clear mistakes that we must not repeat."

David Beckham told Mauricio Pochettino he wishes he was playing under the Tottenham manager in the club's impressive new stadium.

Former England captain Beckham was in attendance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Spurs routed Crystal Palace 4-0 on Saturday.

Pochettino gave away the penalty that Beckham converted during England's 1-0 win over Argentina at the 2002 World Cup, four years on from his infamous sending off against the same opponents at France '98.

But the talk was clearly all amicable in north London, with former Manchester United and Real Madrid star Beckham mightily impressed with the set up at Spurs, where he was once among the youth ranks.

Asked about how important it is to make the new stadium a fortress after hammering Palace, Pochettino replied: "I think it's an amazing stadium. I was talking to David Beckham just now and he said, 'I wish I could still play football and play now for Tottenham because this stadium is amazing'.

"For us it's so important to make our stadium our home and start to feel comfortable. It's completely different to White Hart Lane and of course I think with time we are going to feel at home and it's going to be difficult for opponents to beat us."

Pressed further on Beckham's comments, Pochettino replied: "Yes, yes, yes. He said 'I wish I could play here and play for you!'"

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer described Scott McTominay as one of Manchester United's leaders after his performance in the 1-0 win over Leicester City on Saturday.

United ended a three-game winless Premier League run thanks to Marcus Rashford's eighth-minute penalty at Old Trafford.

McTominay produced a standout display in midfield in the absence of the injured Paul Pogba, shackling James Maddison while triggering United's counter-attacks as they kept Leicester comfortably at bay.

"He's improving, isn't he?" Solskjaer said of the 22-year-old. "Today, I thought he was excellent. He lost the ball a couple of times, which you'd expect because he's learning his new role as a sitting midfielder.

"He goes into tackles, challenges, fights... if there are teams trying to intimidate us, he's there, he's a leader. I wouldn't want to go into a 50-50 with him, put it that way."

While McTominay impressed in midfield, United centre-backs Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire, playing against his former club, also performed well to keep Leicester striker Jamie Vardy on the fringes of the action.

"I thought they did excellent," said Solskjaer. "They read the game well. I've got loads of admiration for Vardy, he's my type of centre-forward: runs in behind, harasses and you've got to be spot on with your decision-making.

"Both of them proved their worth today. There were a couple of races and Harry did well against him."

While Solskjaer acknowledged the overall performance was not of the highest quality, he was happy for his players to be given a boost after three matches without a victory.

"When you play, when you coach, you don't get carried away when you win a game that we maybe don't deserve to win but we don't get down in the dumps when we don't win games we should win," he said.

"The performances have been miles better than this. We just have to wake up with a smile and have the day off and relax a bit."

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers felt Rashford's penalty was harsh, although probably correct, but he believes Caglar Soyuncu will learn from the incident after a careless shove on the United forward.

"It was a soft penalty, harsh, but I think it was [correct]," he said. "For young Caglar, he'll learn to have that wee bit of patience. Marcus is cute, he's bright, waiting for the contact, and he gets the penalty. We reacted well to it in the end, it's just a little frustrating we didn't take something from it.

"[Soyuncu] has been fantastic, stepping in since Harry went, and I thought he was dominant in the game today. There's a lot of young players in the squad and they'll make mistakes.

"In the game as a whole, there weren't so many chances. We're a bit frustrated: we didn't start the game well, we put ourselves on the back foot and conceded a penalty early on."

Spurs made an unconvincing start to the season prior to the international break but put on a show at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

Son Heung-min scored twice, either side of an own goal from Patrick van Aanholt, and Erik Lamela rounded off the rout before the break.

Pochettino issued a rallying cry to his team when addressing the media earlier this week, after close-season disruption that saw Christian Eriksen, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama, Serge Aurier and Danny Rose all linked with moves and rumblings over the futures of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen.

However, the European transfer window passed with none of the supposed wantaway stars leaving and Pochettino showed a hint of frustration, while expressing relief the focus is now on the pitch.

"I think it [thrashing Palace] showed that the team was unsettled [before]. When the team is unsettled, when the squad is unsettled, it is so difficult to perform in the way you want to perform," Pochettino said.

"I'm not complaining or blaming anyone. The focus wasn't on playing football and it wasn't on trying to improve. The focus wasn't on the places we wanted it and it's not easy to perform that way.

"Of course we have quality, enough to win games without focus, but when you are focused it showed, in that first half the performance of the team ... the intensity, the concentration.

"We know what we need to do and when you are able to do that, the quality we have appears. We have tremendous quality in our squad, unbelievable players. If we show that intensity in all our games, for sure we are going to fight for big things."

Aurier has struggled to nail down a starting spot since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2017 and only made his first start of the campaign against Palace despite the sale of fellow right-back Kieran Trippier to Atletico Madrid.

The Ivory Coast full-back impressed against the Eagles, but Pochettino says it is on Aurier and his team-mates to show more consistency.

"He's very happy, we were very happy too, I think the performance was great. First half was fantastic, his concentration and focus," Pochettino added.

"Now he needs to show and be consistent. It's not only one game and the second game the focus and intensity start to drop.

"That is the key in our team, not only him but all the players. All the players need to be consistent and understand that every time we are going to compete we have to give our best. Give like a collective our best and for sure we have the quality to beat any team."

Opposition boss Roy Hodgson admitted his Palace side were simply outplayed in north London and had no qualms about the result.

"Son's performance was outstanding in that first half and it was quite interesting that in the last seconds of the game he was the one sprinting back to try to tackle and stop us scoring at 4-0 up," Hodgson said.

"Technically they were very good today and the quality of the passing from their two centre-backs was outstanding, but they probably won't get the credit for that because centre-backs don't.

"We were well beaten that's for sure, I thought they started so well and with such an incredible tempo that we couldn't deal with it."

Frank Lampard will be tougher than ever on Tammy Abraham after the Chelsea striker scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory over Wolves on Saturday.

Abraham moved to the top of the Premier League scoring charts with a fine treble at Molineux, following up doubles against Norwich City and Sheffield United to take his tally for the season to seven.

The 21-year-old, who spent time on loan at Bristol City, Swansea City and Aston Villa in the past three years, said after the match he hopes to make 2019-20 "my season".

Abraham hobbled off in the 77th minute and was replaced by Michy Batshuayi, and Lampard warned the matchball hero will need to continue hitting the high bar he has set himself if he is to keep the Belgian and Olivier Giroud out of the side.

"I felt that knowing his abilities and watching him in the Championship have two great seasons and in the Premier League, I felt it was more than time for him to have his opportunity," Chelsea boss Lampard said of Abraham.

"He needed to show it in pre-season and at the start of the season, hence he started at Manchester United.

"I have competition up there. I definitely don't want to down-talk Giroud and Batshuayi because we need them as well and Batshuayi looked sharp when he came on and Oli always gives something of a high level, so it was up to Tammy to show it.

"I've got confidence in him and I'm prepared to give him chances, but even more now I'll be tougher on him because he's shown what he can do. So the moment he wants to come off that and think that goals will just drop at his feet will be a moment when maybe he will be rested, so it's important he makes sure he stays on his game.

"I'm happy because I see him every day with a feeling like he wants to play every day, to score goals every day and that's something a bit special. You don't see that in all young players and it's a great gift in him."

Abraham was left out of the England squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Kosovo, but Lampard thinks it will be impossible for Gareth Southgate to overlook the Blues youngster again if he maintains his form.

"The way he's going it's obviously going to put him in that bracket, without telling Gareth what to do," said Lampard.

"To score seven goals in three games and be top scorer and play with the quality he's playing in his all-round game - the three different types of goals he scored are exactly what you want from Tammy: a messy one, a good header and then a fantastic feet and finish goal.

"He has to sustain it and he has to get even better. He has to be hungry, which I know he is. He can never rest on his laurels because there is more work to be done and that England squad is a few weeks away. He needs to keep playing at that level and he'll have a great chance, I'd suggest."

Asked if he had talked to Abraham amid reports Nigeria are keen to offer him an alternative route into international football, Lampard said: "No. No, that's not my choice. I know Tammy's been in England squads before and I'm not surprised Nigeria would want him, but that's a question for him I suppose."

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted Manchester United "didn't play a great game" as they battled to a 1-0 victory over Leicester City at Old Trafford.

Marcus Rashford's eighth-minute penalty settled a contest that was not always high on quality, as Leicester's unbeaten start to the season came to an end.

The visitors enjoyed 58 per cent of the possession but did not create much by way of meaningful opportunities, although David de Gea did make good first-half saves from James Maddison and Ben Chilwell.

Rashford, who missed a penalty in the loss to Crystal Palace last month, took his spot-kick well before United opted to sit deeper and threaten on the counter-attack.

Solskjaer was not overly impressed with the performance in the final hour, but he was delighted with a clean sheet and the way in which his players worked.

"Three points, clean sheet, the camaraderie and togetherness, the work rate," he said when asked what pleased him most about the win.

"Let's not kid ourselves - we didn't play a great game. The first 20, 25 minutes were fantastic but then we gradually lost control of it. Towards the end, I felt we were in control again.

"It was probably the first time this season apart from spells against Chelsea that we've had to defend as a team for longer periods. I was pleased to get a clean sheet; David got a couple of good saves.

"This stadium, they love effort and attitude and energy. For the penalty, Andreas [Pereira] wins a tackle inside the box, Marcus sprints and just gets in front of him [Caglar Soyuncu] - the fans love that.

"People are talking about our lack of clean sheets. We've had Chelsea and Leicester here, two good teams who are going for the top four, and we've kept clean sheets against them."

Harry Maguire was booed by the travelling support even before kick-off but produced a fine display at the heart of the defence to keep his old team-mates at bay.

"It didn't look like he missed them too much!" Solskjaer said. "He did really well. He stuck his head in and he was so calm on the ball for us and we needed that in the second half."

On Rashford's penalty, Solskjaer added: "He's been practicing. Everyone can miss a penalty - I've seen [Diego] Maradona, I've seen [Lionel] Messi, all the best ones miss penalties. He was calm and just wanted it to come his way."

Tammy Abraham scored a hat-trick as Chelsea overcame Wolves 5-2 and he hopes 2019-20 will be his breakout season.

England international Abraham, who has spent time on loan at Bristol City, Swansea City and Aston Villa in the past three seasons, became the youngest player to notch a Premier League hat-trick for Chelsea in an enthralling encounter at Molineux on Saturday.

Having hit doubles against Norwich City and Sheffield United, the striker also joined Cristiano Ronaldo and Dele Alli as the only players aged 21 or younger to score two or more goals in three successive Premier League games.

Abraham's hat-trick followed Fikayo Tomori's long-range opener and put Chelsea 4-0 up after 55 minutes, but, as they have done so frequently this season, they left the door open for a comeback.

Patrick Cutrone opened his Wolves account with five minutes remaining after Abraham turned into his own net, but Mason Mount popped up in stoppage time to cap a victory that was inspired by Chelsea's 21-year-old striker.

"I hope this is my season," said Abraham. "I have to keep working hard in every training session, every game. Every game I want to prove myself to the gaffer.

"Today the plan, it worked well. We were disappointed about the Sheffield United game and not coming away with all three points so we brought that disappointment into this game as motivation.

"We have trained really hard since coming back from internationals."

Chelsea deployed a three-man defence to match Wolves' line-up but were unable to hold onto what would have been a first clean sheet of Frank Lampard's reign.

Despite the late revival for Nuno Espirito Santo's men, Abraham was keen to focus on the positives in attack.

He said: "We would have loved the clean sheet but there were lots of important moments throughout the game.

"They are what we need to take forwards. We were great on the counter-attack and now we keep pushing forwards."